diy solar

diy solar

Monitor Solar System Remotely, looking for advice!

ADDvanced

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Sep 6, 2022
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I want to be able to monitor my solar system, battery amount, and be able turn on a siren/floodlight from anywhere in the world.

CURRENT SYSTEM
720 Watts of Solar Panels
Renogy 60A Rover (150v max input) MPPT Charge Controller
2x200Ah AmpereTime Lithium Ions
Kuwai 4g Router (12v powered) SO I HAVE WIFI AT THE LOCATION.

I tried the Renogy M1, but it was a massive piece of shit and did not work at all. The only other option for remote management of renogy is a cell phone type thing that costs hundreds of dollars a year, and given that I already have wifi, yeah, I'm not doing that. I'm done with renogy, and I'd like to eliminate the charge controller now and not use any of their products moving forward.

What systems should I be looking at? Victron seems overkill both in the sheer # of different units I'd need to piece together, and it's priced extremely high. I know growatt has an all in one MPPT/inverter w wifi, but that company seems like a fly by night chinese company that might not be around in a year or two, it's hard to tell.
 
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I think you're going to be hard pressed to find something that can do what you want to do for less money and be a reliable as Victron.
 
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All of the All-In-One's (AIO) are produced in China, to best of my knowledge ... doesn't make them "fly by night" outfits. What we'll all be looking for these days is "made over there" but "sold/shipped" here. Your AmpereTime's are made over there, but sold/shipped here (I use these as well, and love them). Just bought an MPP AIO, and it jumped right up and ran fine ... someone pointed me at watts247.com, and they shipped the chosen unit fast.

An AIO would fit right in with your current gear, and be an easy integration. You can try to find an AIO with wifi built in, or just layer a "from anywhere in the world" wifi solution on top of the gear that does all items you list (home automation stuff). So many HA choices that you should be able to do all items.

I'd find the right MPP unit, integrate it in, and then once happy with it, *buy another as a spare" (as many of these AIO's only have a 1-year warranty). One in production, one on the shelf (after you test that it works as well).

You do want the vendor you choose to have a well-developed online support mechanism, and you do want to find forums that will help you work with the item, because you'll most likely be self-supporting.

Hope this helps ...
 
Mpp and growatt and many others are made by voltronic probably the largest or next to the largest manufacturer of these aio units, a lot of private label units sold by us based solar suppliers are made by them
 
Your renogy inverter was most likely HighFrequency (HF) ... small, inexpensive, some set of specs/features/programming/display capabilities. Don't know what particular thing or things made it a "piece of junk" for you, but as this wasn't a LF inverter with the right set of features (for you), it might indeed not be a good fit.

HF's are lower cost in general. AIO's are reasonably priced low-cost units that make integration a snap, and hopefully will have the features you want. LF's are the work horse, and cost much more, in addition to whatever specs/features/etc. they have.

I own Magnum (LF) and now MPP (HF) inverters ... both good for the expectations I have for each. Never owned Victron, so I don't know how those shake out (which are HF or LF); they are well-known for integration/connectivity options.

I'd expect to pay more for LF and features ... Victron seems to have something for everyone, plus a color scheme!

More on the HF/LF stuff:



Hope this helps ...
 
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